A federal appeals panel has ruled that New York City has a right to ban churches from holding worship services in school buildings. In essence, it means Christians have officially become second-class citizens in the nation's largest city.

Pretty sure this would apply to any religion who tried to use a public building. Of course he then goes on to claim it's an assault on ALL religious freedom. Pick one, you douche, you don't get to have it both ways.

DamnYankees:Ignoring the idiocy of TFA, this law does seem flatly unconstitutional.

Something, something, church, something, state.

I know a guy who used to be an elementary school principal. He refused to rent the school gym to any religious organizations because if he did for one, he'd have to do it for all (Moonies, KKK, etc). He got death threats for doing this.

Calmamity:Because that is how the country was set up and how it runs. Don't like it? Move somewhere more politically aligned with your feelings, like Iran.

Why do you hate America?

This is false. As far as I'm aware (and its been a few months since I studied for the bar, but I'm pretty sure about this) if a school rents out its facilities to third parties, it has to permit religious institutions participate in that market.

DamnYankees:Ignoring the idiocy of TFA, this law does seem flatly unconstitutional.

Not if they refuse to rent to everybody. At least that's my understanding. There's also something about "compelling government interest" which one of the Fark lawyers can address, but that might not apply here. I think that's the reasoning behind letting parochial schools use public buses.

DamnYankees:Calmamity: Because that is how the country was set up and how it runs. Don't like it? Move somewhere more politically aligned with your feelings, like Iran.

Why do you hate America?

This is false. As far as I'm aware (and its been a few months since I studied for the bar, but I'm pretty sure about this) if a school rents out its facilities to third parties, it has to permit religious institutions participate in that market.

Aha! A Fark lawyer! I sentence you to answer your own question!

/no, seriously, I thought as long as they didn't rent to ANY religious institution it was OK. I'd never heard about churches falling under a third party clause. Although I guess that makes sense in its own way.

Lsherm:DamnYankees: Ignoring the idiocy of TFA, this law does seem flatly unconstitutional.

Not if they refuse to rent to everybody. At least that's my understanding. There's also something about "compelling government interest" which one of the Fark lawyers can address, but that might not apply here. I think that's the reasoning behind letting parochial schools use public buses.

I am a Fark lawyer. And I agree with you about renting to everybody. But the law seems to contemplate the opposite - that they will rent to everyone EXCEPT churches.

Lsherm:DamnYankees: Ignoring the idiocy of TFA, this law does seem flatly unconstitutional.

Not if they refuse to rent to everybody. At least that's my understanding. There's also something about "compelling government interest" which one of the Fark lawyers can address, but that might not apply here. I think that's the reasoning behind letting parochial schools use public buses.

............but they don't refuse to rent to everybody just religious organizations.

DamnYankees:Calmamity: Because that is how the country was set up and how it runs. Don't like it? Move somewhere more politically aligned with your feelings, like Iran.

Why do you hate America?

This is false. As far as I'm aware (and its been a few months since I studied for the bar, but I'm pretty sure about this) if a school rents out its facilities to third parties, it has to permit religious institutions participate in that market.

Lsherm:/no, seriously, I thought as long as they didn't rent to ANY religious institution it was OK. I'd never heard about churches falling under a third party clause. Although I guess that makes sense in its own way.

You can't discriminate between religious and non-religious institutions at all. I'm not a civil rights lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that's the law.

Why is it that too many Christians don't understand that the Bible tells you you can worship God anywhere? The first churches were just founded for the convenience of gathering believers in one spot. That's why I hate Catholicism. They took something good and perverted it into ceremonies, worshiping idols, and worshiping men.

BravadoGT:dj_bigbird: It seems that the ruling applies to all religious gatherings, not just Christians.

insert pacman "we're being oppressed" graphic here.

The legal term for the phenomenon is "disparate impact"

If they're renting space to other groups and denying churches the same access--pretty discriminatory.

If they're renting space to other RELIGIOUS GROUPS and denying churches it's discriminatory. If they have a consistently-applied prohibition on denying space to all religious groups their simply following the Establishment Clause

DamnYankees:Calmamity: Because that is how the country was set up and how it runs. Don't like it? Move somewhere more politically aligned with your feelings, like Iran.

Why do you hate America?

This is false. As far as I'm aware (and its been a few months since I studied for the bar, but I'm pretty sure about this) if a school rents out its facilities to third parties, it has to permit religious institutions participate in that market.

Could it be the worship services part? That the church is allowed to rent for events but not worship services?

skinink:Why is it that too many Christians don't understand that the Bible tells you you can worship God anywhere? The first churches were just founded for the convenience of gathering believers in one spot. That's why I hate Catholicism. They took something good and perverted it into ceremonies, worshiping idols, and worshiping men.

Catholicism is just good marketing. People like all that BS, they just gave it to them.

That's not possible. I have a crying glittery bald eagle with an American Flag riding a Harley past the Statue of Liberty projected behind me on a 50 foot tall IMAX screen everywhere I go.

That makes the most patriotic person in the whole world.

/ It takes three electricians working overtime time to make sure its always working.// the electricians are undocumented immigrants, so I'm not really paying overtime/// those cheap projectors from China hardly ever catch on fire!

The ban is constitutional, but I don't understand the purpose of the law. Nobody is using the school on Sundays so why not rent out the space. An atheist must have heard about the churches being there and caught the vapors.